Porsche Macan Four-Cylinder Quietly Debuts Overseas

No Official Release Issued, Model Listed on UK Consumer Site

Typically, car manufacturers are not bashful about shouting about their latest models in an adjective-laden press release and staging elaborate events to talk about them to assembled media. But Porsche took the exact opposite approach with the release of the latest variation of its Macan compact crossover. While an appropriately elaborate event was staged at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show for the Macan S and Macan Turbo, no official release (that we could find) was issued for the now-available base Porsche Macan with its 2.0L I-4 turbo.

The only place we could find any information of note on the new model was on Porsche's UK consumer site, which lists some of the specifications of the car. Like the Macan S and Turbo, the base model has Porsche's seven-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission, but instead of being bolted to a pressurized V-6, it is instead mated to a humble 2.0L inline-four, producing 237 hp and an estimated 258 lb-ft of torque. Acceleration from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) is listed as a respectable, but not scorching, 6.9 seconds, with a top speed of 138 mph. Porsche even puts the caveat of "special order only" for the I-4 Macan.

Porsche reportedly has no plans on selling the four-cylinder Macan in the U.S. market, and it's likely it wouldn't be a huge seller for the performance-oriented brand anyway. The U.S. is much more likely to get the Macan S Diesel, powered by VWAG's excellent 3.0L turbodiesel V-6 making 258 hp and 428 lb-ft. We've ridden in all of the currently-available Macan variations ourselves, including the diesel, and all of them make for satisfying drives. The four-banger would probably be perfectly acceptable in its own right, but we think the diesel makes a lot more sense for its balance of performance and economy, not to mention the strong 30-plus percent take rate for the larger Cayenne diesel in the U.S. market.